Four deadly shootings in two days put Oakland police on high alert

Oakland police increased their presence with a department-branded recreational vehicle near 13th Street and 72nd Avenue after two recent deadly shootings in East Oakland.

Photo: Megan Cassidy / The Chronicle

A rash of shootings in East Oakland left four people dead in less than 48 hours, forcing police to storm the area Tuesday in an effort to put residents at ease.

At least a dozen Oakland officers, including some of the department’s brass, surrounded a department-branded recreational vehicle parked on International Boulevard at 72nd Avenue, an area where two separate slayings occurred within steps of each other in the past two days.

“If you live here, it has to be jarring to have this level of violence happen in your community in such a short period of time,” Oakland Police Acting Chief LeRonne Armstrong said.“We’ve seen this be effective; we’ve seen the community appreciate seeing the additional presence.”

Police believe the two homicides are connected and stemmed from a “street-level” narcotics deal, Capt. Roland Holmgren said Tuesday. The other two shootings, which occurred early Sunday morning in other parts of the city, do not appear to be related, he said.

At least four others were injured in those incidents, police said.

Lisa Mihsill and Gwen Jones, both of Oakland, were waiting at the bus stop near the department’s command post Tuesday afternoon, and both said they were concerned about the recent spate of violence but appreciated the police presence.

“They’re not just riding by, they’re outside of their patrol car, and they’re actually standing in the street where we are,” Mihsill said.

“They’re trying to do their jobs, you know,” Jones added.

Monday’s killing marked Oakland’s 46th homicide of 2018, a slight uptick from the 42 tallied at this time last year. There were 45 by this date in 2016.

Holmgren said none of the shootings appeared to be tied to gang violence.

“For the most part, they seem to be acts where some sort of disturbance, some of sort of conflict between a group occurred, and unfortunately a person decided to utilize a gun to solve differences,” he said.

The latest string of gunfire began just after 1 a.m. Sunday, following a conflict between two groups at a party near the 9500 block of E Street, Holmgren said. Some of these people left the party, Holmgren said, but “a short time after there was a vehicle drove by and discharged a firearm fatally.”

Polo Demetrio Pablocalmo, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene and a second man was taken to the hospital and is expected to live.

Another shooting was reported about an hour and a half later and several miles to the northwest, on the 1100 block of International Boulevard near Franklin Elementary School. Holmgren described this shooting as a “dispute between a group” that left 31-year-old Xin Hoang of Union City dead and injured another man and woman.

Then at 7 p.m. Sunday, police responded to more shots fired at the 1300 block of 72nd Avenue, which was less than 2 miles from the E Street attack. One man was pronounced dead at the scene, and a woman was taken to the hospital in stable condition.

A fourth round of gunfire came the next afternoon at 4:10 p.m. on the 7100 block of International Avenue. Upon arrival, officers found one man identified as 36-year-old Oakland resident Mario Thomas suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.

Holmgren said police believe both of the last two shootings were the “result of some street-level drug dealing that’s going on in the area.”

Armstrong on Tuesday said Ceasefire will remain the department’s primary strategy in preventing violent crime; officers will additionally flood the area with a greater presence. This means more officers on foot, in patrol cars and working later, he said.

Residents are also being encouraged to report crimes or information to police in the mobile command unit.

“I want to say that this level of violence is unacceptable, and that we take it very seriously,” Holmgren said. “We plan to work as hard as we can to bring those responsible for this violence to justice.”

Megan Cassidy is a crime reporter with The Chronicle, also covering cops, criminal justice issues and mayhem. Previously, Cassidy worked for the Arizona Republic covering Phoenix police, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and desert-area crime and mayhem. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Missouri, and has additionally worked at the Casper Star-Tribune, National Geographic and an online publication in Buenos Aires. Cassidy can be reached on twitter at @meganrcassidy, and will talk about true crime as long as you’ll let her.